Day 4 - October 7

Today began early and with great excitement.  The missing luggage and equipment did cause a few wrinkles in the schedule, but our Russian hosts were great about finding substitute activities.  We ate breakfast at the training center and it was awesome.  They had a ton of food and many things that were very familiar to us...eggs, meat and cheese, crepes, fruit, yogurt, etc.

After breakfast, we loaded up the bus and headed to the arena to watch the Russian Red Army practice.  Their official name is HC CSKA Moscow and they play in the KHL.  We were fortunate to be guided on this endeavor by Igor Tuzik, the VP of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation.  We got to watch and film their practice, which was really cool.  The coaches picked up on some new drills and schemes to try and the kids really enjoyed watched some NHL players that are playing here during the lockout.

After the practice was done, the team got to meet and take photos with Pavel Datsyuk (Detroit Red Wings) and Ilya Brazgalov (Philadelphia Flyers).  It was incredible to see these guys and for them to be so friendly to our group.  Sergei Federov was also there - he is the GM for CSKA.

When the players left, Tuzik took us on a tour of the facility and talked to us about the history of Russian hockey and how they do things.  They even had a sheet of ice on the third floor where a group of peewee players were practicing.  In Russia, kids are identified early as "having talent" and then they are brought to sport schools and / or the training center for further development.

After the practice and tour, the group came back to the training center to relax for a bit and get more comfortable.  The rooms here are dorm style and the kids are paired up with a player from a different state.  This is a great set up for us and we are very luck to have hosts that want to make sure we have everything we need.  We have been very spoiled thus far.

This afternoon, we headed to an outdoor sport court facility for what we believed was a chance to watch some Russian floorball.  When we arrived and got off the bus, we were greeted by Russian dancers and cheerleaders...and quickly realized that we were the opponent in the floorball game.  There wasn't much time to react though and our kids were quickly divided up into lines with the Russian players for some relays and warm-up activities.  Right after that, they played :).  The game was a blast and all of the kids were having a ton of fun.  It was interesting to see our kids trying to use their hockey skills and transfer them as much as possible to the floorball game.  They got into the spirit of it right away and had a great time. 

After the game, they had pizza and immediately the kids were all talking, getting to know each other and, of course, exchanging names for facebook and twitter purposes. There was definitely a language barrier, but the Russian kids did their best with what little English they know, and our kids stayed patient and made it work. It was an unbelievable icebreaker and great event put on by our Russian hosts.

We ended the night with another late dinner (it is common to eat here around 8:30pm) and then a meeting with the Russian hockey players and coaches